Nicholas Payton

 “John Coltrane’s Centennial Celebration”

Nicholas Payton brings A Supreme Blue to Blues Alley for a two-night centennial celebration of two towering figures in Black American Music: Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Reimagining the spirit of Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme, this project is both homage and reinvention, filtered through Payton’s own voice as producer, trumpeter, keyboardist, and bandleader.

Like a master chef, Nicholas Payton is possessing a deft sense of proportion, taste and poetic flair, this forward-looking heir to the traditions of New Orleans blends an array of related musical food groups—Bebop, Swing, the Great American Songbook, New Orleans second-line, Mardi Gras Indian, Instrumental Soul, Rhythm-and-Blues, Urban, Hip-Hop, and various Afro-descended dialects of Central America and the Caribbean—into a focused sound that is entirely his own argot.  Payton is widely considered one of the greatest artists of our time. Hailed as a virtuoso before he was even out of high school, his maturation and talent has earned him praise and accolades, as well as insured his place in musical history.  When he was barely in his 20s, Nicholas Payton made his major-label recording debut as a leader with From This Moment (Verve). Since then, Payton has consistently committed himself to developing his distinct voice.  Spanning a multitude of musical genres, Payton has composed and arranged, performed and recorded with his own groups in many settings, including solo, duo, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, 21-piece big band, as well as his 2012 full orchestral work, The Black American Symphony.

Payton's clarion trumpet, as well as his genre-defying solos, stood at the center of the music making... Payton bent notes beyond recognition… No descriptive label or category could be affixed to Payton's solos, which were as brashly original as they were technically imposing.

–Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 1, 2012